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The Art of Politics

Reporters: "Please Shoot Yourself"

By Judy Osborne

The Rev. Pat Robertson, televangelist, chairman of the Christian Coalition, candidate in the 1988 presidential election, spiritual leader of 1.9 million of the faithful, got caught with his foot in his mouth.

Robertson’s feat of dexterity occurred as he opened a meeting of "fellow radicals" in Atlanta last fall by demanding, "If there’s any press here, would you please shoot yourself?" Somebody actually showed up with a hidden tape recorder. He or she was wise enough not to follow Robertson’s instructions and so survived until the tape had been handed over to the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which transcribed Robertson’s words and made them available to the press.

As with other religious right leaders, Robertson pretends that the Christian Coalition is nonpartisan and simply dedicated to transmitting religious education and Christian values. Behind closed doors, though, Robertson’s words exposed the lie.

Robertson joked with the group of 100 or so state leaders that they are "dangerously seeking to overturn the established order and take power away from a bunch of liberals and give it to those who love this country." As he went on, his words made it crystal clear that he regards Republicans as the people who love this country.

Robertson gave the Christian Coalition full credit for the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. He expressed anger at those same Republicans for later failing to support the Coalition’s agenda, telling the state leaders to go to Congress and say to Republicans, "Look, we put you in power in 1994, and we want you to deliver. Don’t give us all this stuff about you’ve got a different agenda. This is what you’re going to do this year." Robertson concluded that "We’re not a bunch of ingenues any more. We’re a seasoned group of warriors."

Looking forward to the year 2000 presidential election, Robertson anticipated that the Christian Coalition would be a key player in picking the Republican candidate. Referring to President Bush and unsuccessful candidate Bob Dole, Robertson noted that "We’ve had two major losers and I don’t want any more losers. I want a winner. And we need to come together on somebody who reflects our values and has the stature to be president." He ridiculed the opposition’s chances, saying "Ozone Al (Gore) ... is going to be the butt of every talk show and comedy show in America." Anticipating the next presidential campaign with some glee, Robertson offered his opinion that "I don’t think at this time and juncture the Democrats are going to be able to take the White House unless we throw it away."

After Robertson finished speaking, the state leaders adjourned to join the much larger Christian Coalition’s Road to Victory Conference, then in progress.. Among those attending the Conference were senators John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) and Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), former presidential candidates Steve Forbes and Lamarr Alexander, and Newt Gingrich.

By now you’re probably asking why this discussion belongs in a transgender publication.

The answer is that the religious right pursues, as one of it’s primary goals, the elimination of our freedom to be who we are. Robertson and other religious right leaders denounce transpeople in the same breath with gays and lesbians, and if they succeed, we lose. For the past four years the religious right has offered legislation denying any civil rights to transpeople along with gays and lesbians. Other proposed legislation has been focused on transpeople separately, bills such as those prohibiting changing legal documents and defining sex/gender as immutable.

The Reverend Mel White, in his book Stranger at the Gate, had this to say about the people for whom he had written speeches before coming out as gay. Pat Robertson was one of his bosses:

"My old clients on the religious right were misleading millions of Americans to fear and to hate gay and lesbian people, to discriminate and legislate against us, and inadvertently motivating extremists and crazies to terrorize, abuse, and even kill us ... I began to see firsthand the immediate and long-term damage of those antihomosexual broadcasts and sermons, books, magazines, and videos in terms of ruined lives, broken families, and murdered souls."

Why has the religious right targeted us? For the answer we turn to Suzanne Pharr, founder and leader of the Women’s Project in Arkansas and a prominent analyst of the religious right’s social movement.

In an analysis circulated some time ago over the net, Pharr views the conservative right as a loose amalgamation of groups and philosophies oriented toward similar goals, with the religious right as a major component. She sees the contemporary religious right as having emerged "around 1972, at the same time that conservative strategists were also shaping racist backlash to the Civil Rights movement, especially affirmative action and busing. The religious Right would focus its energy on issues of sexuality and gender (i.e., homosexuality, abortion, feminism) rather than directly on race." By exploiting people’s fear of differences, they could "lead them to support social and political exclusion of those different from themselves through mobilizing to change institutions and government to limit who gets to be full working partners in the everyday life of this country, with full access to food, clothing, shelter, safety, and health."

Pharr offers a succinct view of their goals. "Generally, the religious Right is attempting to replace democracy with theocracy, merging church and state so that authoritarian leaders enforce a fundamentalist vision in this country’s public and private life. This vision, developed from a narrow and literal interpretation of the Bible, is of one white God who gives authority directly to man to have power and dominion over the earth and its people, and its material resources."

According to Pharr, the religious right gains several advantages by attacking homosexuals (transgenders included) as one of its targets. We’re demonized, portrayed as child molesters, disease carriers, predators, family destroyers. By amplifying existing prejudices, the religious right raises considerable money in our name while blaming us, along with other minorities, for the social and economic ills experienced these days by a broad segment of the population.

We’re useful also in diminishing the impact of civil rights protections for all minorities. The religious right deliberately confuses basic equality under the law with minority status (there’s no such category), affirmative action, and quotas, concepts never sought by gay people. "A primary purpose of the attack against lesbians and gay men," according to Pharr, "is to get the public to think of all civil rights as ‘special rights’ that ‘majority’ people have the power to bestow on deserving or undeserving minorities ... Rather than remaining the cornerstone of democracy, these rights for everyone now become turned over to the media-driven, fear-based campaigns that are won by those who have the most money and are able to best sway public opinion."

Pharr deals in a comprehensive way with the religious right’s goals, targets and strategies. She offers considerable support to her opinion that the system the religious right leadership is seeking "requires a rigid hierarchy in which white men dominate women, people of color, and nature." Pharr concludes, "it is people of color, women, children, lesbians and gay men, and the environment that will suffer if they succeed in their goals. In the end, it is all of us."

Comments, including critical ones, are most welcome. Please e-mail your thoughts to me at heyjude@eskimo.com.

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